The first round of preliminary election results are in for Tuesday’s municipal election.
Still outstanding are more than 1,000 absentee and questioned ballots, which will be counted before the election is certified. Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly members are scheduled to certify the results at their meeting next week.
In the lone contested central peninsula race, candidate Sarah Douthit carried a sizable lead over Jeanne Reveal. The two are running for Kenai’s seat on the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District school board. As of about 8:30 p.m., Douthit had clinched about two-thirds [WEB: 66.5%] of the nearly 500 votes cast.
The two other candidates running for school board are Kelley Cizek, who’s seeking reelection to the board’s Sterling/Funny River seat and Tim Daugharty, who’s running for reelection to the board’s Homer seat.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly will get a couple of new faces. All three races were uncontested, although dozens of voters wrote in candidates.
Cindy Ecklund, will retain the District 6 – East Peninsula Seat.
Willy Dunne will return to the assembly’s District 9 - South Peninsula seat. Dunne held that seat for six years before reaching his term limit in 2021. He’ll replace outgoing assembly member Mike Tupper, who was elected in 2021.
Sitting Kenai City Council member James Baisden will fill the assembly’s District 1 - Kalifornsky seat. He’ll replace Brent Hibbert, who’s held the seat for the last six years.
The races for seats on the Kenai and Soldotna city councils are also uncontested.
In Soldotna, incumbents Jordan Chilson and Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings are running unopposed for reelection to their respective seats. In Kenai, incumbent Deborah Sounart is running alongside newcomer Sovala Kisena. Kenai City Council members are scheduled to certify the city’s election results Oct. 16.
On the southern peninsula, preliminary results show a failed $38.5 million bond for improvements to South Peninsula Hospital and Rachel Lord eking out a narrow lead in the race for Homer mayor.
Preliminary results put Lord, who currently sits on the Homer City Council, ahead of Jim Anderson with 52.1% of the vote. Homer City Council members Donna Aderhold and Shelly Erickson are running unopposed. This will be Aderhold’s fourth term in office and Erickson’s second term.
With all precincts reporting, early unofficial results suggest that the $38.5 million bond for South Peninsula Hospital will fail. Nearly two-thirds of voters — 64% — opposed the bond. The bond would have paid for hospital maintenance, acquiring new land and expanding services.
In Seward, four candidates are running for two open seats on the city council.
With 537 votes reported, newcomer Casie Warner takes a narrow lead with 34.6%, or 186 votes. Incumbent John Osenga trails by about 5 percentage points, or 28 votes. Just ten votes separate Osenga from Mike Calhoon, the third highest vote-getter, who’s also an incumbent. John Howard received 8.4% of the vote.
In Homer and Seward, certification is scheduled for Oct. 14.
